1. Field of the Disclosure
This non-provisional application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional App. No. 61/371,581, filed Aug. 6, 2010, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The following is directed to abrasive tools and methods of finishing complex shapes in workpieces using such abrasive tools, and more particularly, use of bonded abrasive tools having particular shapes for finishing of complex shapes within workpieces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within the industry of finishing, various processes may be employed to finish workpieces. However, in the particular context of finishing workpieces to have complex shapes, few options are available since such finishing operations require exacting surface contours and tight dimensional tolerances. Certain preferred approaches are milling or broaching, where blades are used to cut the complex shape in the workpiece. However, broaching can be an expensive operation, due to high tooling costs, expensive machinery, set-up costs, tooling regrinding costs and slow material removal rates. Milling processes are generally very slow, especially in machining difficult-to-machine materials, such as nickel alloys.
Still, in the context of forming retention slots in turbine disks, which are used to hold or retain turbine blades around the periphery of the disk, broaching is the preferred approach throughout most of the industry. Current practice in the aerospace industry is to machine slots into the disk by use of a broaching machine, which is a linear cutting machine that drives successively larger cutters through the disk slot, with the final cutters having a desired complex shape (i.e., a re-entrant shape) of the finished slot. Broaching is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,936 to Yadzik, Jr. et al.
Another method for producing profiled parts is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,326 to Kuehne et al. The method involves pre-shaping and finish grinding a blank in one chucking position with at least one profiled grinding wheel. The blank is translated and rotated relative to the at least one profiled grinding wheel during the pre-shaping step for giving the blank approximately a desired profile. However, the Kuehne method may be used for external surfaces, and not internal surfaces, and thus is not applicable to the creation of internal slots.
Other methods of producing complex shapes in workpieces are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,883,234 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,619. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,619 to Subramanian et al., the processes utilizes grinding with a large diameter wheel operated perpendicular to the surface of the part for initial formation of a slot within the workpiece. Finishing of the slot to the desired contour is completed using a single-layered electroplated tool.
There is a need to develop new methods to form complex shapes within workpieces and limit the shortcomings associated with conventional processes.